Water Berlin 2017 – Kick of Meeting – New EWA (European Water Association) Working Group “EQF – European Qualification Framework in the Water Sector”

During the Kick of Meeting of the new EWA Working Group “EQF in the European Water Sector” the following 13 countries joint the meeting. From left represenartives from : Polen, Portugal, Spain, Norwey, Astria, Czech Republic, Finland, Slovenia, Albania, Netherland, Romania, Germany and Hungary. Additionally the BiBB (Federal Institute for Vocational Training, Germany and the Danube Projec, Austria send representatives.

We discussed the following four points:

1. Implementation of the EQF in the water sector in the various countries
How is the EQF introduced in the various countries?
A study with recommendations will be prepared and published in 2018
2. University Challenges of DWA during various IFATs in the world and Wetskill from
the Netherlands
How can we work better together in the area of Unversities?
3. Water Skills of DWA during the various IFATs in the world and the new Worldskills
International Initiative “Water Technology” starting in October 2017 in Abu Dhabi
How we can work together in the various Water Skills initiatives?
4. New Media
Various new media where shown by DWA: e.g. Training Boxes, QR-Code Feasibility
Study. E-Learining experiances where discussed

I´m now the chairman of this group and my aim is it to publish an European Study to show the actual situation and to make recommendations for the Water Sector in Europe to improve the mobility among the countries and to get an transparent picture of the various approches. I also talked with EUREAU Vice President Claudia Castell-Extner (DVGW) to avoid dublication and to get support and with Mr. Ulmer, DVGW chairperson qualification.

I´m also interested to get more cooperation for the various challenges for students and technicians during the trade shows in Europe and to develop an Euroskill and Worldskill competition with more countries.

That is all challenging but we will make it working in the next 3-4 years.
The start was very good and we had a very good discussion on the various topics. We know that some more countries will join like France, Swiss, Belgium and Luxembourg.